


Starring Buffy Anne Summers as Herself

by TheBobcatHews



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, F/F, F/M, Horror, LGBTQIA+ Relationships and Characters, M/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Peggy Sue fic with a twist, Slow Burn, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2018-10-02 11:07:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10216622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBobcatHews/pseuds/TheBobcatHews
Summary: After countless apocalypses, deaths of loved ones and the world itself at the brink of extinction, the last Slayer decided to take a long-shot and try to solve everything and once again, save the world. Only this time, she will make sure it will stay saved.Buffy Summers traveled back in time. The thing was: It wasn’t as simple as she hoped it would be.She wakes up in the past, but it is not her past. She finds herself in a timeline completely different from the one she knew. A world where the darkness is only growing more and more and everything is slowly but surely spinning out of control. Guess saving the world and future will be far from simple.





	1. Come as you are, as you were

**Author's Note:**

> In order to celebrate Buffy’s 20th anniversary, I decided to publish this strange story that has been growing in my head. As you can tell by the tags, it’s a Peggy Sue fic, which I really love, but I decided to do it with a twist, as you will see in the future chapters. The story is probably going to be a slow burner, but it will eventually kick into high gear.
> 
> Far from me to ever try to do something as epic as the story that served as a big inspiration for creating this one, but I will definitely say that this story is based on the epic ‘The Price of the Wish’ by Robert2. If you are interested in what tone I’m hoping this story will have, go read it. Even if not, you should definitely go read it.
> 
> Lastly, this chapter here counts more as a prologue, with the next ones being bigger and having more story and development. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story and stick around to go on this crazy ride.

_“You know how risky this is right?”_

_“I know the risks, Will, but this… this is our last chance. Look around! What else can we do?”_

_“You know this has never been done or even attempted…”_

…

_“I’m not sure how long back I can…”_

_“…will I remember any-…”_

_“…hopefully the memories won’t…”_

_…_

_“…believe it would be best for you go to your first day in Sunny…”_

_“…if I go back when I first found I was Slay…”_

…

_“They are here!”_

_“Willow!”_

_“Buffy, you have to…”_

…

_“…died again…”_

_…_

_“…Angel fell, but the Senior Partners were taken…”_

_…_

_“…Faith tried to save the few Slayers left, but…”_

_…_

_“…they all came for the girls, the new vamps, the Draculians, the Turok-Hans…”_

_…_

_“…Xander went back to Sunnydale. I don’t know how, but his corp-…”_

_…_

_“…he was Angel’s son, right? Connor? He killed hims-…”_

_…_

_“…Coven was found and all the witches and warlocks, they just…”_

_…_

_“…no-eyes went after them, one by one, every major one was att-…”_

_…_

_“…’s Council fell! I repeat, the Watch-…”_

_…_

_“…they took his body. They said Giles helped…”_

_…_

_“…all the packs were under the influence of it, but Oz…”_

_…_

_“…-eeper Well. Something happened there, all the coffins…”_

_…_

_“…they used her; they needed a Key to…”_

_…_

_“…all the news in the world are talking about LA simply going…”_

_…_

_“…they both went into the sunlight. She wanted him with her when…”_

_…_

_“…we’ve been trying to find General Finn, but he isn’t…”_

_…_

_“…the Hybrids invaded the compound. The New Initia-…”_

_…_

_“… She’s gone! Willow is gone, B…”_

_…_

_“…Cleveland is gone. It’s simply…”_

_…_

_“…Kennedy’s last report was about different vamps…”_

_…_

_“…So, Xander, how is it like to train the normal ones to…”_

_…_

_“…Oz thinks he can work as an Ambassador to the Were…”_

_…_

_“…Giles and Riley are talking about a merge between…”_

_…_

_“…they need to be monitored. The Slayers and the Watchers are going…”_

_…_

_“…my little sister just graduated High School, and I’m not even in the same conti-…”_

_…_

_“…Council is to train new Slayers and Watchers to…”_

_…_

_“…Wolfram and Hart unleashed an army…”_

_…_

_“…you destroy one Hellmouth, but you end up living on the top of another one…”_

_…_

_“We changed the world.”_

_“Yeah Buffy, what are we going to do now?”_

\--

“Buffy?” She heard someone calling her. The voice was female and… familiar.

She felt herself lying on something comfortable, her head also on top of something comfortable. Wait… a bed and… pillows?

“Buffy?” The voice called again, this time a bit louder. That voice…but it couldn’t be.

She finally decided to open her eyes and immediately closed them shut again. The brightness hurt her eyes. The brightness… from the sun… that was coming from a window. She tried again, using one of her hands to protect her eyes and briefly glanced around. A room, a bedroom. A bedroom she didn’t recognize. Where was she?

The room sparked a memory from long ago, making her remember when there still existed hotels. This room looked like one you would find in a hotel. Still… why was she here?

The door from the room opened and a blonde woman walked in, her arms crossed, clearly expecting something from the girl who was still on the bed, but she couldn’t move.

“Buffy, didn’t you hear me calling you?” The woman… her…. asked. “You promised you would come have breakfast with all of us remember? Tell me you didn’t forget it.”

Completely at a loss for words, she simply shook her head negatively.

“Good.” The woman smiled and left the room closing the door, but she opened it again right after. “Just don’t take too long, sweetie, everything is almost ready.”

She kept looking at the closed door, still unable to move much. She looked around the room until her eyes caught a glimpse of a calendar that read ‘Summer 1997’. So that meant…

“Is this real?” She asked herself. Her own voice surprised her. It sounded younger.

She slowly began to get up, finding the body different from the one she used to wake up in. No scars, no pain, no healed broken parts. She was finally on her feet, finding the right balance for the younger body. Her head and her thoughts were… messy and mangled up. It felt like waking up from a dream, but you woke in another one, yet somehow, she knew this was real. Her head just needed to know that too. She forced her brain to work with her a little, but the memories and important pieces of information were escaping. Plus, the headache didn’t help. She should try it again later.

She walked to a near mirror and looked at herself. She saw herself, but a different self. Younger, slimmer, with an actual blonde and treated hair. She felt lighter, her skin was way smoother and her eyes showed more life than the last time she looked at them. Even her insides felt different, almost like they were purer. Something else about herself was different. Something she could tell was important, but couldn’t quite figure out what was it.

She knew why she was here, but at the same time, she didn’t. Like in a dream, the reason was right out of the reach of her fingertips, but whispers in her mind made her remember small things. She went back, that much was clear, and she wanted to come. If it really had worked, then she needed to take it slow.

The most important thing is that she still knew who she was. She was Buffy Anne Summers, the Vampire Slayer. She had lived and fought ever since she was fifteen years old until there was nothing and no one left, but her mission…

Images flashed in her mind without warning. Thousands and thousands of different images, but they had things in common. There was destruction, loss, blood, war, nightmares, darkness, monsters, hopelessness, death… simply, the end of all.

She put one hand on her chest, trying to catch her breath and one in her forehead. Note to self: forcing your head? Not the best of the ideas, but she needed to focus and place herself. She needed to be prepared. It would take one step at a time, but she had time.

Time.

Summer, 1997.

At the back of her mind, the date itself didn’t seem wrong, but what seemed off was that she was at this particular time. She knew that. She remembered that it was the plan, to travel back. Well, to be more specific, her mind would travel back to her younger body. That part she knew it worked. She was there… to stop the end of the world, as it was the most likely reason for her to travel back in time. The specifics of the mission… well, one step at a time.

“Buffy,” Another female voice, younger this time called from behind the door. “Mom says breakfast is ready!”

That voice… wait… Mom? The woman who talked to her… It was her mom! She was alive! Of course she would be! She was in the past now. Still, her heart ached and she couldn’t help the tears from falling. Her mommy was alive again. She had another chance with her. One that she would not allow going to waste.

The other voice, the younger one… She recognized it. She tried her best to place it, but the fog and the hovering pain inside her head were stopping her. She ran to the door and opened it, trying to see if the person who had just talked to her was still there. There was no one in front of the door, but she turned her head and she saw someone. She saw her.

Dawn.

She was there. She turned around, probably because she heard the door open. She looked at Buffy up and down. “Aren’t you going to get out of your pajamas? Breakfast is ready. Come on, I don’t want to hear you getting another lecture on our first day of vacation.”

She turned around and made a right turn to a corridor. From the sounds, she was going down a flight of stairs. Frozen where she was, Buffy couldn’t believe it. Dawn was here. Seeing her made her remember. She remembered the two timelines, the one she lived before her second year of college, but also the one manufactured by the monks to reshape reality so that Dawn would have always existed. All these reality changes and time traveling shenanigans really gave her a headache. Another one, which was worse.

Then it hit her. Dawn looked older. From the other set of memories, when it was 1997, Dawn was a kid while Buffy herself was in her late teens. More specifically, since it was summer, she was 16 and about to start her junior year in high school. So, why was Dawn at least 14 from what she looked like?

Besides, where were they exactly? This place didn’t look like her old house in Sunnydale or the one in LA. She had noticed it looked like a hotel or something, and now looking outside the bedroom, it looked like a cabin. A very fancy, hotel-like, cabin.

Something was definitely wrong.

Deciding that best way of finding out what was going on was to face this reality rather than trying to split her head open trying to remember, Buffy followed the path Dawn had made, probably towards to where they were going to have breakfast. As she walked the corridor, she noticed there were no pictures or nothing connecting her family to this place. Meaning they were probably here on vacation since it was summer, but… mom never took Dawn and her on vacation.

She finally got down the stairs and moved towards the room where she could hear the noise of plates and people talking. She stopped a few steps behind from the entrance. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying her best to relax herself and her mind. The last thing she needed was a wave of images in her head during breakfast. She let out a breath and walked in, smiling the best she could.

“Good morning!” She said with her best fake chirpy voice.

“Good morning, honey.” A man said to her and Buffy almost fainted.

Hank Summers, her father, was sitting at the table with her mom and Dawn. A flash from a similar situation from the manufactured timeline appeared in her mind for split second before she kept staring at the scene in front of her.

“Buffy?” He asked with his voice genuinely concerned. “Are you okay? It looks like you just seen a ghost.”

“Did you sleep well?’ Joyce asked. She was sitting right next to her… husband. “Our flight was quite exhausting.”

“I slept fine.” Dawn commented as she started putting food in her plate. She seemed not at all surprised at what was happening.

“No!” Buffy said but shook her head right after. “I mean, I had no trouble sleeping, I’m just… surprised.”

She was trying to sound normal, but truth was she had no idea what was going on.

“Oh, I know,” Joyce gave her a small smile. “Having breakfast at a fancy cabin in North Canada. Quite surprising.”

“I’m glad you are enjoying, love.” Hank said as he leaned and gave her a very passionate kiss.

“Ew!” Dawn teased. “Why can’t you act like a normal married couple? You know, one that doesn't show so much affection in front of their children.”

Hank and Joyce laughed and started putting food on their plates. Meanwhile, Buffy had her mouth hanging open. Her parents… they were together, kissing, and from what Dawn had just said, this was a common occurrence. What the hell was going on?

“Buffy, honey?” Joyce looked at her. “Aren’t you going to seat and eat?”

“Oh!” Buffy smiled and hurried to seat next to Dawn who gave her a strange look.

She ignored it and started to put food on her plate as well, even though she didn’t feel particularly hungry, but she needed to blend in. As they ate, she made her best to notice the interactions among her family and see what changed. Her parents seemed perfectly happy with each other, something she never noticed even when they lived in L.A.

As for Dawn, she seemed normal. She mostly kept quiet eating and asking Buffy to pass her some things from the table, but nothing else. The Dawn she remembered didn’t get along with her, at least not at this age, but then again, their age difference now was clearly shorter.

“So,” Hank said, looking at his two daughters with a smile. “What are the plans for today?”

“Skiing!” Dawn announced like it was the obvious choice. “We didn’t come so far to not enjoy the snow, daddy.”

“That is true.” He laughed. He turned to Buffy, who was just watching the two talk. “You are going skiing too, Buffy?”

Buffy blinked, not sure how to answer. She had never gone skiing. Well, not herself from the past she came and… She shook her head. Not the time to think about that. She just decided to give her father a smile.

“Maybe I’m going to stay in for today,” She said. “You know, jet lag and all that.”

Dawn scoffed. “Admit it. You just don’t want to see your younger sister beating you at skiing.”

She noticed that while Dawn was teasing her, it wasn’t with a mean tone, it was a playful one. Buffy shook her head smiling.

“Tomorrow, okay?” She tried to sound as gentle as possible. Dawn smiled back, seemingly buying it.

“Well,” Joyce got up. “Your father and I are going to see more of the resort. Sure you don’t want to join us?”

“I’m sure, mom,” Buffy smiled. “I just need to relax a bit more to enjoy our vacation.”

The rest of the family started to get up, but they were leaving their plates behind, which confused Buffy. Her mother did just say they were in a resort, so maybe that meant someone was going to come and clean the table? She decided not question. No need to raise suspicion.

An hour and a half later, the three other Summers left the cabin, leaving Buffy alone. She watched them walking away from their rented cabin, all of them talking happily with each other. While she felt happy to see her family together and happy like that, something inside made her shiver in fear. This, all this, it was never meant to happen.

She ran to the bedroom she was staying in and closed the door behind her. She paced around for a few minutes, trying to figure it out what exactly was going on. She tried her best not to force her mind, but she needed to do something. There were things she clearly remembered, while others, it was felt like they were there, she simply couldn’t bring them out yet.

Despite the pain it would cause her, she needed to do it. She needed to remember, otherwise, whatever was her real mission here it would be for nothing. So, she focused on the first thing she noticed. The date.

If she was back to the summer of 1997, she was still 16, which meant… she had already died. The Master was gone, but he had killed her. Yet, something didn’t add up. For starters, Dawn’s age and her parents being together. It was definitely not like this in the summer of 1997 she remembered. She had spent it with her dad in L.A., as well as with Dawn, depending on what timeline she wanted to remember.

Timeline. Timelines.

She had memories, well, not complete ones with every single detail, but she had memories of two timelines already in her mind. One where she was an only child and the other with Dawn included. Yet, she had memories of both them. Which made her think: Was this another timeline?

A flash came to her mind. A conversation, between her and… someone, someone very dear to her that made her heart ache. They had talked about to when Buffy should go back…

Yet, this wasn’t what they decided because this timeline never existed. Not for her, not for her version of Buffy Summers. Meaning that, whatever happened with the process of sending her back in time, it totally went wrong. She wasn’t back at any of the pasts she could remember.

That’s when her head started hurting again. Her mind was still fragile from the trip, as it would be, as… someone had told her it would be. She breathed in and out, trying to relax herself, and looked at herself in the mirror. It was still her, her 16-year-old self she remembered. There wasn’t much difference. She was the same girl she-

Her eyes bulged and she ran to stand closer to the mirror. She turned her head, exposing her neck. No scars. No bite scars. She turned to the other side and it was the same. Wait, if this was 1997 and she had died at the hands of the Master, then where were the scars from his bite?

Unless…

She ran to one of her luggage near a closet and opened them. She rummaged through them, trying to find a box of jewelry or even a small patch, but nothing. She tried to check if there was a hidden compartment on it, but there wasn’t.

Where was she hiding her weapons?

She spotted a box of jewelry on top of a nightstand and hurried to open it. She threw all the contents of it on her bed and started looking for something. There were so many pieces of jewelry there, ones she never though she could afford to have, but there was nothing with a cross on it. No small crucifixes. Nothing.

Buffy backed away slowly from the bed, trying not to freak out. She couldn’t freak out, she was an adult woman. Well, maybe the fact she was in the body of a teenager with hormones again might not help her much. Still, she needed to keep it cool.

No weapons, no crucifixes, no biting. She quickly checked her skin, trying to look for any scars. Thanks to her accelerated healings, she wouldn’t have many, but the fact that her body had none at all made her heart start pounding faster.

“Okay, Buffy, calm down.” She told herself. “Let’s think logically here, or at least try to.”

The fact she was in Canada with her parents who were not divorced and in love with each with an older Dawn already meant she wasn’t in the past she wanted to go back to, as in the one she had memories about. This could explain why she didn’t have scars, but why nothing to fight vampires?

She looked at the TV in her room and quickly turned it on. It gave her a feel of nostalgia of using a television like this one. Using one at all, even. She went through several channels, not really sure what she was looking for, but maybe she could find something about Sunnydale?

She tried and tried, but no luck. She turned the TV off and threw the remote on the floor, frustration already building up inside her. She needed explanations of what was happening. The question was where she would get them. She could try calling… who? Who would she call? What would she ask them any away?

A single tear fell from one of her eyes. Her mind was too confused she couldn’t even remember who sent her here or who she should call. Their names, the names of the people she loved, they were on the tip of her tongue, yet she couldn’t say them because her memory didn’t allow her to!

She snapped her fingers, remembering something she had just seen inside her luggage. Buffy wiped away the tear from her face, kneeled in front of the open baggage, and reached for a small pink book with a lock on it. A diary. Her diary.

Dawn was the one who kept diaries, but before she became a Slayer, Buffy used to do that too. Apparently, she still did. She tried to break the lock, but she almost hurt herself doing it. Okay, what was going on? This should be the easiest thing for her to do.

Deciding to worry about this later, she looked for a key among the clothes, but didn’t find it. She kneeled back, trying to relax and focus. Before, when her old self used to write on diaries and kept them locked, where did she use to hide the keys for it? Where?

She was about to force her memory again when it came to her by itself. She remembered it. She got up and went to the bed where the jewelry box was and took it in her hands. She forced the bottom of the box and it came out like it used to do. Inside the empty space, there was a small key with a pink detail on it. She grabbed it and threw the box back on the bed.

She opened the diary and started going through the pages. It was her handwriting. There was no doubt of it. She checked the date of her last entry and read something about the girls being totally jealous of her going to a cold place to escape the heat for the summer. Huh, that sounded strange. Who were these girls?

She sat on the bed and kept reading her entries and her stomach started to twist. Everything she wrote was shallow. Gossip, boys, clothes, cheerleading, shopping, music. All of it was like that and they were entries from the previous semester. Did that mean…?

She looked at the palm of her hand she used to try to open the lock from the diary. It was red and if she touched it, it hurt. Something so simple like that shouldn’t hurt her. She put aside the diary and walked to the piece of furniture that had the TV on it and took a metal candle-holder next to it in her hands. She took out the candles and used both of her hands to try to bend it. Not a second before she tried, she had to drop the thing because her hands started to hurt.

She looked at the fallen and completely fine candle-holder. A horrible realization dawned on her. She had no powers. Her entries in her diary. No weapons and no scars. The strange feeling she had that something inside was different. She couldn’t believe it, but there was no other explanation.

She wasn’t the Slayer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday, Buffy the Vampire Slayer! 20 years later, and you are still the best.


	2. Oh I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over a year since I first published the first chapter... wow. All I can say is that ever since I published it, life has spun out of control for me. But it's getting better. And getting back to writing is helping quite a lot. So, hopefully, it won't take a year for me to update this and my other stories.
> 
> Once again, just as a reminder, the story has a slow burn beginning, but this chapter already sheds some light into what is going on and Buffy sees how much different this world is from the one she meant to go back to.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Summer had ended. Her family commented on how fast it had gone by but to Buffy…

She had spent the entire summer trying to figure out what was going on. Her diaries, as she had actually found a few other ones, told her more about what this version of Buffy was doing, and from what she discovered, it made her… conflicted and to be honest, nauseous.

The Buffy from before was seemingly a lot like her very own self before she became a Slayer. She was quite popular, and she wasn’t just stroking her own ego, apparently, she was the queen of Sunnydale High, the most popular girl of all school, even though she was only a sophomore, now a junior. She was also quite vain and superfluous, as most of her writing was about a lot of extremely superficial things. She also seemed to think she had the right to pass judgment on the ‘lower ones’ of the social class, and used some quite crude words to describe them. To top it all, she seemed to be going out with two boys at the same time: Tyler Slater and Jeffrey Kramer. Those things made the future Buffy sick, as there was a reality or even a possibility of her being someone like that.

The information, however, made her realize some other things that didn’t quite add up to this strange new timeline/reality/universe/bizarro world or whatever she found herself in. According to the details from her misadventures, she went to a high school called Sunnydale High, but students from her old school in L.A., Hemery High, also went there. She mentioned her ‘girls’ several times, who were a mixture of the girls she used to hang out with before she became a Slayer and Cordelia’s lackeys from their Sunnydale High days. Who, surprise, were now her lackeys, or as apparently people called them, the B-dettes. She shuddered to think of what else the B could stand for. That meant she was ‘best friends’ with none other than Cordelia Chase herself. Which could only mean one thing…

Willow. Xander. Giles.

She didn’t know them here, or worse, she did and she treated them just like Cordelia would treat them before she went to Sunnydale. None of them had a mention by name in any of her diaries’ entries, which made her not only sad but worried.

Buffy was still very confused, but after months of almost giving herself a stroke, she remembered. Not everything, but at least the things she thought she would never forget. Her friends, the Scoobies, the ones that always were there for her. She remembered their names, their personalities, their passions, and most importantly, their faces. There were still things that the ritual still didn’t allow her to remember, like a more distant future, but she knew, inside her, that from the time she came from, they were gone. Which broke her heart because… if they knew her, well, the Buffy from this place, they probably hated her, like they did with Cordelia.

She would just have to work on that then.

Which brought her to another thing. She wasn’t the Slayer. It wasn’t only her pathetic attempt to break a tiny lock that proved that to her. She tried to do many other things, but she had none of her powers. No super strength, reflexes, speed nor enhanced healing since she accidentally cut her hand with a knife and it took days to heal. She imagined not being a Slayer also took away some of her grace. One thing that actually made sure that she still lived in a world where vampires, demons, and even Slayers existed were the dreams.

During the summer she didn’t have any of the dreams she used to have before being a Slayer, as in the ones of the Slayers before her, but she found some entries in older diaries that the other Buffy talked about having horrible and violent nightmares about women in different times fighting horror movie monsters. Buffy theorized that if the past Buffy had them, she still was a Potential, meaning there was still the possibility of becoming the Slayer. The only thing was that if she didn’t have any dreams now and she wasn’t a Slayer, it could mean two things.

One: There was another Slayer active in her place, meaning she would have to die for Buffy to be Called. Two: If now, during these months, there were no dreams, did it meant that she was still a Potential or had she lost her chance? She wished for the first time she actually had learned more about being a Potential and what made one become a Slayer in the first place.

There were also very brief mentions on the diaries of strange and downright bizarre occurrences happening around Sunnydale, like people missing or turning up dead, or things worse that the previous Buffy would not go into detail… but apparently, the old Buffy preferred to ignore that, just like any other good Sunnydale citizen.

Which lead to another strange thing: She lived in Sunnydale with both her parents and Dawn, but she also went to a Sunnydale High with people from Hemery High. Could that mean that somehow in this place the two cities mixed or only people from Buffy’s life existed all in the same place? The big question was why, since Buffy wasn’t the Chosen One. Not anymore, or at least, not yet.

There were still many questions left without answers. Why was she here? What happened for her to come here? Why exactly did she travel back in time for? Also… If she wasn’t the Slayer, was all of this still part of her destiny?

“Buffy?” She heard Dawn calling her. The two were in the back seat of a very luxurious car and her little sister was looking at her with a seemingly worried look. “You’ve been staring out of the window for hours? What’s the deal?”

Buffy still couldn’t believe that this version of Dawn, at this age, was apparently closer to Buffy, which truth to be told, didn’t make much sense. Maybe this Dawn was just different too. Her parents were obviously different. They were way happier and talkative, and to Buffy’s utter surprise, she could actually tell they were still in love.

“It’s nothing,” Buffy waved her hand. “I guess I’m just missing summer already, that’s all.”

Dawn still looked unconvinced but decided to let go, which relieved Buffy. She didn’t know how long she would be able to hold this charade. Sure, from the diaries, she could tell how she acted and emulate her, but she wasn’t the best of actresses. Most importantly, she didn’t **want** to be that girl!

\--

A few hours from the airport and the Summers arrived home, which made Buffy even more confused. The moment they saw a sign indicating they had arrived in Los Angeles, Hank said they were home.

They lived in Los Angeles, but her diaries said Sunnydale…

Okay, she was really going to go back to an institution if her mind kept getting messed like that!

Driving more, they passed by a sign that said Sunnydale. Wait… so Sunnydale was what, a part of Los Angeles in this world? Like a neighborhood? Or was it a city in the Los Angeles County? Gods, Goddesses, and the Powers that wish they were! What in the thousand hells was going on?

As they drove through the streets, Buffy could recognize most of the houses from Sunnydale, but also some mansions and fancy houses from Los Angeles. It was safe to say that yes, Sunnydale was inside L.A. in this world.

Super.

Finally, they arrived at their home. Their… big, expensive, for-rich-people home. She could recognize some things from both her houses from Sunnydale and L.A. from her original past, but this… she never lived in a freakin’ mansion! Okay, so mansion might be a stretch, but damn, it was a big house. It certainly fit more than four people.

That thought alone made Buffy stop walking. A big house… okay, which clearly meant her parents were richer. Her das was in her original past, but having a house like this meant both of them now were. Wait, did that mean that she had… more siblings? No, that wouldn’t make sense. If she had more siblings they would have traveled with them, right? Unless they were very little and couldn’t travel? Okay, not the time to hyperventilate!

“Glad to be back home, girls?” Hank asked as he grabbed some of the luggage, which everyone was carrying, meaning they didn’t have anyone working for them in this house, which made Buffy way more comfortable. Being back in the 90s would take a long time to get used to it. They left the car locked on the parking way and walked towards the front door.

“Tomorrow is the first day of school, daddy,” Dawn said as she followed him to the front door. “What do you think?”

“Oh, come on, Dawn,” Joyce reprimanded her lightly. “Aren’t you excited for your first day in high school?”

Dawn seemed like she wanted to talk back, but held her tongue and simply nodded. She turned to Buffy with a small smile. “At least you can give me some tips, right?”

Buffy tilted her head. She still was getting used to the fact that this Dawn was nice to her. Also, the next day she started her freshman year at most likely Sunnydale High. Great. She needed to worry about her sister studying above the Hellmouth. Again…

They entered the house and Buffy tried not to seem too surprised by it. Some of it reminded her of the old house in L.A. as well as her old house in Sunnydale like they were mixed together and thrown into another one. Another bigger one. Everyone started moving and then she realized to her horror: She didn’t know where her room in this house was.

“Daddy,” Buffy asked with a sweet voice. She really needed to start getting used to playing the part. “Can you help with my stuff to my room?”

Hank gave her a smile and put aside the things he was carrying. “Sure thing, sweetheart. Let’s go.”

He helped her with some other bags and walked up the stairs, Buffy trailing after him. She took the opportunity to look around the house. It sure was big, but nothing in the level that she would walk around and get lost. That was good.

As they kept walking, Buffy started thinking about tomorrow again. Dawn would most certainly be going to the same high school as the previous version of Buffy, so she would be in Sunnydale High. However, with all the changes she had already witnessed, Buffy thought if by being part of Los Angeles now, would that mean the Hellmouth was still under the school? And if it wasn’t, was it here in L.A. or somewhere else? More things to put on her soon-to-be-written figure-it-out list.

“Here you go, honey,” Hank opened the door to her room. Her very spacious room. He left the bags on the floor and Buffy did the same. “Is that all?”

Buffy was still looking at her room but turned to her father with a smile. “I think that’s all. If it isn’t, I can get the rest tomorrow, right? I’m feeling a bit tired from the drive.”

“Sure thing,” He gave her a kiss on her forehead, which almost made her flinch since not even the Hank Summers she remembered used to be like this. “We are probably going to hit the hay too, so have a good night.”

“You have a good night too, daddy.” Buffy waved and let out a sigh when the door closed. It was still too weird.

Her attention turned back to the room. Her old bed was there, but some many other different pieces of furniture decorated her room and the space of the room itself made her think she could fit both of her previous rooms she lived in when she was a teenager and still have room. She saw a door that had a board on it with several pictures. She walked towards it and analyzed it, surprising herself with the photos.

She was in all of them and most of them were with the girls, the B-dettes. She recognized the one that used to hang out with Cordelia: Harmony, Aura, Blue, Aphrodesia. What really surprised her was to see Kimberly, Nicole, and Jennifer there. She remembered how it was like hanging out with them back when she went to Hemery High, and a part of her was glad to see they were alive in this reality and had not fallen to the hordes of vampires that invaded the gym that night…

Shaking her heads from the memories, she looked at the other pictures. Cordelia was in a lot of them, with most of them being just her and Buffy, which made her think if they were really best friends. She could remember how Cordelia was before she became part of the Scooby Gang and her position on friendship. Was it the same with Buffy? Moreover, she didn’t know the position of this Buffy she took over. Did she have real friends or were all these girls hanging out with her because of her apparent popularity? That thought alone made her long for Xander and Willow.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

She was about to open the door when she noticed two Polaroid pictures on one of the corners of the board. She took them and saw herself in two very similar positions, but with two very different boys. One picture had her with Jeffrey and the other one had her with Tyler. Right, there was also **that** to deal with.

She put the photos back, deciding to worry about that when the time came. She finally opened the door to find a big walk-in closet behind it. She was astounded. She didn’t have any of that even when she lived back in Los Angeles. Then again, her family wasn’t as rich as this version seemed to be. She walked in, inspecting the clothes, the shoes, and the jewelry. More than she ever had. She noticed that hanging on one side of the closet was a row of clothes. She picked the first one, noticing it was a complete outfit with a note on it saying the date she was supposed to wear it as well what shoes and accessories would go with it. Well… she couldn’t say this version of her wasn’t prepared. At least, she wouldn’t have to worry about blending with clothes. No way she could remember what was considered ‘in’ back in ’97, especially for someone who was the ‘queen’ of Sunnydale High.

She sighed and left the closet, walking straight to her bed and falling on it. Her mind kept wanting to understand what was going on and even recover the memories from before her trip, but… she was definitely not in the mood to give herself a headache right now. Come tomorrow, she would deal with what she tried to prepare herself for the entire summer. She hoped she would do a good job.

Yeah, tomorrow was **definitely** going to be a long day.

\--

Buffy sat in the passenger’s seat of her dad’s car as he drove her and Dawn to school. Once again, they had eaten breakfast together, which was something Buffy had mastered faking indifference over the summer. Her mom went to work, but her gallery was on the other side of the city, so Hank was the one who used to drop them at school. Buffy couldn’t help to notice that when Joyce talked about the gallery, she said it was hers. That could be one of the reasons why they had more money.

After a not so long drive, they stopped in front of Sunnydale High. Hank said his goodbyes and drove off. Buffy tried to play it cool, but she was just as mesmerized by the school as her sister was. It looked exactly like the first one before Giles blew it up. Yet, somehow, it seemed bigger. Just another thing that changed, of course.

“You okay?” Dawn asked seriously. She looked at her older sister oddly.

“What?” Buffy laughed a little. “Yeah, totally! Just seeing this building again… makes me groan, you know?”

Dawn nodded. “I can imagine. So, where do we start?”

Before Buffy could say something, the older girl felt her left arm pulled. She looked over and saw Cordelia, who gave Dawn a very condescending smile. “Sorry, sweetie, but your big sis has much more important things to attend to, you understand, of course, don’t you? And I’m sure you can find yourself around, right?”

Dawn gave her a very big smile and nodded, which made Buffy confused. “Yeah! Sure! Definitely! I-I’ll catch you guys later!”

“Sure you will!” Cordelia kept smiling until they were far from Dawn. She turned to Buffy and rolled her eyes, the smile long gone. “You are welcome.”

Buffy simply nodded.

“So, how was your summer?” Cordelia asked as she linked her arm with Buffy’s. “Mine was pretty good. St. Croix is so beautiful. How about you, enjoyed the north?”

“Hum,” Buffy felt strange with the closeness. “Yeah. Lots of… snow and cold. You know?”

“That boring, huh?” Cordelia smirked. “I told you should’ve convinced your folks to take you to Hawaii. You know how good a perfect tan can make you feel.”

Once again, Buffy simply nodded. It had been years since she had this kind of superfluous conversation with another girl. Having it with Cordelia even… she and the other girl had learned how to co-exist before she left Sunnydale, but she never considered her, well, a friend. First, she was there because she knew about things, then it was because of Xander, then it was… well, because she wanted to be there. There was never a connection, but she knew the potential Cordelia had, after all, she had been a great ally to Angel when…

Angel…

Where was he here?

Was he…

“Buffy!” A girl’s voice caught her attention. It was Kimberly. Kimberly Hannah. The same one who had gone to Hemery High with her. The same one who was the first to turn her back on her.

“Hey, Kimmie!” Buffy complimented her with a smile. This was going to be tough. “Hey everyone!”

The table Cordelia had practically pulled her into was one full of girls. They were the B-dettes, as Buffy recognized all of them. She sat, with Cordelia right by her side while everyone said hi to her and asked the same questions. Buffy did her best to talk to all of them and maintain appearances. She didn’t need to have another problem right on the first day of school with her ‘followers’ thinking something was wrong with her.

“So?” Harmony asked. Buffy couldn’t help to be amazed at seeing the girl. It didn’t matter if she was human or vampire, Harmony never changed. “Any word from Tyler?”

“Or Jeffrey?” Jennifer asked a little too eagerly. Buffy remembered how Jennifer felt for Jeffrey. Apparently, that hadn’t changed. Also, apparently all the girls knew about her affairs with both boys. Great.

Buffy just gave them a smug smile and shook her head. “I just got back. They can come and find me later.”

All the girls laughed. She could so easily recognize the fakeness in it.

“Any hot flings during summer break?” Blue asked, wiggling her eyebrows. Like the other Cordettes, Buffy didn’t know much about the Korean girl, but she remembered her from school.

“No!” She answered a bit too quickly which made all the girls look at her strangely. Wait, was she really like that in this reality? Well, not her, but the previous her. Ugh, there comes the headaches. “I mean, I wish! Unfortunately, not major action going on at the skiing resort.”

The girls nodded, giving her sympathetic looks, as if what she just said really was something bad. She decided to let the conversation among them continue while she simply listened, trying to acquire the most information possible she didn’t have already from her diaries. The bad news was that all they talked about were the same things her other self had talked about in the diaries. Not much help then. She just listened to them gossip about boys and other stuff, but her ears perked up when one of them mentioned something completely out of the subject. Something supernatural.

“I mean,” Nicole said, as she looked at herself in a compact mirror. “Daddy said it’s going to be impossible to sell the house now that the whole family “disappeared” if you know what I mean. Total, total bummer!”

“Disappeared?” Buffy asked. “What do you mean disappeared?”

Nicole gave her a confused and somewhat shocked look that all the other girls at the table seemed to have it on too. Buffy could almost feel that talking about these kinds of … subjects were not cool.

But she needed to know so she kept staring at Nicole, who huffed and closed her compact. She leaned towards Buffy and began speaking in a very low voice.

“My dad now has to deal with the fact that the family who was living in this great property vanished, left the house a mess, their things still there, and we still had to call the cops.” Nicole finished by rolling her eyes.

“Why did he call the police?” Buffy pressed.

Nicole looked now disgusted.

“Hey,” Buffy tried to change her tone a bit. “Just want to know how much trouble your dad is.”

That seemed to work a little. Nicole let out a big sigh. “Apparently, the family was doing some kind of cult weirdo shit and messed the whole house with this disgusting and apparently smelly red paint, you know, the ones they use for their wacko rituals, and now, I think it will be impossible for him to sell it.” Nicole said.

Buffy was about to ask more when the other girls talked before her.

“I’m so sorry!” Harmony said. “Your father is like the best real-estate agent around!”

“I know right!” Nicole sighed. “Anyway, I’m sure he’ll be able to figure something out. Selling it to another family is going to be a bitch though.”

“Wait,” Buffy tried to ignore the looks the other girls were giving her. “How did a whole family just disappeared from their house and their things are still there?”

Nicole waved her hand like they were talking about nothing. “I don’t know. Of course, they would haul ass after the damage they did. And those things, probably stolen.”

Buffy took all in as the other girls gave Nicole their nice words. ‘Smelly red pain’? Yeah, right. Blood. That family was more likely victims of a slaughter. And just like before, no one seemed to notice what the real matter was.

She was certain about one thing though: This was definitely Sunnydale. Now, she needed to know exactly how bad things were in this version of Sunnydale. A cold slightly run through her skin as she glimpsed at the high school building. For all she knew, the Hellmouth could just be under it again.

The bell rang and all of them got up, each one saying goodbye as most of them went in different directions. Cordelia once again linked arms with Buffy and lead the girl away, saying something to Harmony, who seemed disappointed not to go with the two. Buffy was a little lost in her thoughts, looking around the campus when her eyes fell on the two people she wanted to see the most.

Xander and Willow. To her actual surprise, they were talking to Jesse. Jesse. Jesse McNally. He was alive.

“Think we are going to get lucky and actually have a hot teacher this semester?” Cordelia asked, oblivious to the fact that Buffy was paying attention to the three.

“Cordelia,” She stopped walking and the other girl looked at her questioningly. “I think I just spotted, hum, Jeffrey over there. I’m going to talk to him real quick, okay?”

“I thought you wanted him to come to talk to you.” Cordelia said as she looked around the campus, looking for the boy in question.

“Oh! Well,” Buffy needed to think of an excuse fast. “Just want to tease him, you know?”

Cordelia actually smiled. “Let him know who has the leash, right?”

Geez. “You know me.”

Cordelia nodded and started to walk away. “See you in class then.”

Buffy waved and smiled like she was supposed to. Once the other girl was out of sight, she sighed. All this pretending wasn’t easy at all, and she had no idea how long she would need to keep doing this, or how long she would be able to. She still needed answers. She knew who to go to have at least some of them, but first.

She walked over to the three, who were still talking and smiling. She had almost forgotten Jesse’s face. It was so long ago…and Xander and Willow. She couldn’t remember too far, but she remembered enough to make her entire body tremble as approached them. It felt like an eternity since the last time she saw them smiling and, well, normal. Guilt pierced her chest.

Willow turned and saw her, making eye contact, which resulted in Buffy freezing on the stop. The redhead whispered something to the other two boys, gathered her things and left. Jesse was right behind her, but Xander looked at her, almost as if he wanted to talk to her, but also left. Buffy watched them go, feeling empty.

Her theory was probably right. She was definitely not their favorite person in the world, and from the look Willow gave her, they knew each other, but not the way Buffy had hoped. What was she going to do now? At least, she was now sure they were alive and well. Safe, probably. That she still needed confirmation, but it would have to wait. She needed to get to class.

Wait. What was her class?

\--

Luckily, she had managed to find her way and avoid any trouble. Classes were almost the same as they were, but she didn’t share any with either Xander nor Willow yet. She didn’t know whether to feel sad or thankful for that. All she knew was that she needed to talk to Giles. If anyone were going to believe her, it would be him.

Since it was study hall, she decided she wouldn’t, actually, couldn’t wait until the end of the school day to talk to him, so she was going to the library now. She stopped in front of it, the same feeling she had upon seeing Xander and Willow began to creep inside her. She knew him. Giles had been a father to her, not just her Watcher and ally. He was family, just like the others. She put her hand on one of the doors and for a brief moment, a horrifying though passed in her head. What if he wasn’t the librarian? Since she wasn’t the Slayer, maybe there was no reason for him to be in Sunnydale. Deciding just to face it, she walked in.

Seeing him behind the counter relieved her beyond words.

He turned to see who had entered and frowned. Not the best reaction she hoped he would have, but then again, he most likely knew who the other Buffy used to be. She walked over, offering him a smile, but he was still frowning at her. Maybe he didn’t know who she was. It wouldn’t be that surprising, to be honest.

“Hello,” He greeted. “Can I help you, miss…”

So he really didn’t know who she was. “Buffy. I mean, Buffy Summers. That’s my name.”

“Ah.” He gave a short nod. “What can I do for you today, Ms. Summers?”

“You don’t know who I am, do you?” Buffy asked somewhat apologetic.

Giles seemed surprised by the question. “Well, I can’t say we have officially met, Ms. Summers, but I, hum, know of you.”

Even Giles? Damn, previous Buffy!

“Right,” Buffy attempted to smile and looked around. Unlike the other version of her past, the library actually had many students in it. It also seemed quite bigger than the one she remembered. The library… all the memories…

“Can I help you, Ms. Summers?” Giles repeated the question.

Buffy shook her memories and emotions, trying to focus. Right. Giles. Talk. “I, well, hope you can.”

Giles simply nodded. “What book are you looking for?”

Before she answered, she actually took a good look at the Rupert Giles standing in front of her. He still dressed formally, but not so much. He wasn’t wearing his glasses and… he had an earring. So… different Giles? Oh… Oh no! If he was different, could that mean he wasn’t a Watcher?

“Ms. Summers?” Giles asked with a hint of concern. “Are you feeling well? You seem to be spacing out quite a bit.”

“Oh! Sorry!” She smiled and shook her head. She looked around the students, wondering how she could talk to him about… all that.

“Do you have a book under there?” She asked quickly.

“Under here?” Giles actually smiled a bit. “I have many books here, as you can see, Ms. Summers.”

“Would you happen to have one,” She leaned in looking around and lowered her voice. “With the title ‘Vampyr’, by any chance?”

Giles straightened a bit but gave her confused look. “You mean books about vampires?”

“Yes!” Maybe she was finally getting to something.

“Well,” Giles pointed to a section of the library. “You can find some paranormal fiction books over there. They are not that many. Lots of Laura K. Hamilton, which I wouldn’t advise a student to read.”

Oh no. He thought she was asking about books on fictional vampires. “No, no, no! That’s not what I mean!”

“Well, I can check to see if I have this Vampyr book you are talking about…”

“Giles!” She said a bit too loudly. The man frowned at her for using his last name like that. “What I mean is… books you wouldn’t keep here for other students to read, you know? Books of your… another profession.”

Giles simply blinked. “Ms. Summers, I don’t know what you are trying to imply, but I’m simply just a librarian.”

“Giles,” Buffy coughed at his look. “Mr. Giles, I think you do know what I mean.”

“I honestly do not,” He seemed to already not want to give her any more attention. “I do believe is time for you to go since I can’t help you.”

“Please!” Buffy begged. She still tried to maintain her lower voice. “Weird things going on around Sunnydale. That’s what I’m talking about. A book called Vampyr? You have to know what I am talking about!”

Giles sighed in frustration and approached her. “I do not, Ms. Summers, and I advise you to leave my library before you start to upset people who actually want to be here.”

“But I…” She wanted to continue, but maybe it was useless. Since she was not the Slayer, maybe this version of Giles wasn’t a Watcher. Just a librarian who now thought she was insane.

“Sorry,” She apologized to Giles’ back. “I guess since I am not her, you are not my Watcher anymore.”

She left before she could see the utter look of unbelievable surprise on his face.

\--

The school day had ended and Buffy was once again surrounded by her B-dettes. Cordelia, as always, right by her side.

“We totally need to go out tonight!” Kimberly said. “Get all this school stress out of our system.”

“I heard The Bronze finally re-opened.” Harmony piped in.

“Really?” Cordelia asked. “After that gang attack that happened last semester?”

“Gang attack?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah,” Cordelia said as it was common knowledge. “The one where they had to close it down for so long after the mess it happened there.”

Buffy wanted to ask what had happened.

“Is that place even cool anymore?” Nicole asked.

“We will be the judges of that,” Cordelia declared. “Right, Buffy?”

“Yeah,” Buffy managed her Stepford smile. “Totally.”

“At eight, then?” Jennifer asked.

“Our time,” Cordelia said. “See you all there!

Cordelia linked her arms to Buffy once again and walked in the opposite directions of the other girls. “Need a ride?”

“Oh,” Buffy shook her head with a smile. “I have to look for Dawn and see how things went.”

Cordelia gave her a strange look.

“Well,” Buffy slipped back to her other persona. “So, I don’t get in trouble with the parents.”

“I am so sorry you bratty sister is going here,” Cordelia declared. “Well, good luck then. See ya tonight! Bye!”

Buffy said bye and slowly walked back to the entrance of the school, hoping Dawn would just be there and waiting. She thought about all that happened that day, but she still needed to know about Giles. What was his part here? If Buffy was, in fact, a Potential still, maybe he was a Watcher still too. She also needed to find out more about this gang attack on the Bronze. A ‘gang attack’ only meant one thing back in the old days: Vampires. A thought crossed her mind: Now that school was over, the library would be closed so she could talk better to Giles, try to make him understand. She began rushing towards the library when she caught a glimpse of Giles’ familiar car across the patio on the road, driving away.

Great. This day was really going perfectly. Well, she really needed to go find Dawn. So lost in her rushing thoughts, she didn’t notice when she bumped into someone, making a folder they were holding fall on the floor. She immediately got to her knees and started apologizing. When she handed the papers to the person, she froze.

“Thank you, Ms. Summer.” A very alive Jenny Calendar said to her.

“Hum… Yeah, no problem,” Buffy couldn’t believe her eyes. Jenny… “Sorry for bumping into you.”

Jenny regarded with a confused look. Well, another teacher who of course knew her old self. “Well, thanks for actually helping.”

“Yeah, I, ah,” Buffy started to walk away. She was real. She felt her fingers brush against her own. She wasn’t The First. She was alive, really alive and really real. “I have to go. Bye.”

As Buffy almost ran away from her, Jenny looked at the girl intrigued.

\--

She had found Dawn, waiting for their dad as he picked the girls up. She seemed quite upset with her older sister, and the two didn’t exchange one word. Dawn only talked to their dad, explaining how the first day of high school was while glancing coldly at Buffy a few times. Buffy wondered what she had done wrong. Yet another thing for her to worry.

This new life was going really great until now.

They arrived home and Dawn just went to her room. Buffy went to hers, still trying to process everything that had happened. She went through some of her diaries again, trying to look for clues, but there was nothing there that could help with what she was looking for.

She had dinner with her parents and Dawn, who still ignored her. After spending some time watching TV, she said she was going to get ready to go out with her friends. Her parents seemed to be okay with her going out at night. Probably a very common occurrence from before.

Luckily, Cordelia had called her and went to pick her up. Buffy was relieved when the other girl appreciated her outfit. A thing she didn’t have to worry was keeping herself, at least… well, hopefully, not too long, the same from before. Soon, she hoped, she would be able to sort things out. Well, she could only really hope.

\--

The Bronze also, of course, looked different. A mix of the older and newer versions it had plus a bigger building and newer things. The place had a good deal of teens, making many of the B-dettes state that it had the potential for it to be the hangout place again. Cordelia actually whispered to Buffy she was glad because at least they wouldn’t have to drive to downtown L.A. to go to good clubs since finding fake IDs that worked there was too difficult. Buffy simply nodded. Of course, they used to do that.

“Let’s go to the VIP room then.” Harmony squeaked in delight.

“VIP room?” Buffy asked.

“I know,” Cordelia put a hand on her chest as a sign of relief. “I also thought they would have got ridden of it.”

“Phew, then.” Buffy smiled. She looked around the rest of the club and spotted Willow, Xander, and Jesse sitting in a booth somewhat far away from them. “Well, you gals go ahead. I’m feeling like exploring a bit more. Cool?”

All B-dettes, of course, agreed and went on but Cordelia stayed. “Think you’ll find Tyler here? Jeffrey is definitely in the VIP room.”

“You know me so well.” Buffy smiled.

“I’ll keep Jennifer off him until you get back. Don’t take too long!” Cordelia gave her a quick hug, which surprised Buffy a little, before going to the VIP Room. At least Buffy knew where it was and could go there after… well, she had to face them. She simply could not ignore them.

She walked towards them, thinking exactly what she would ask them. Well, she would, of course, would have to break the wall Willow would probably put up. She only hoped Jesse and Xander would be easier. She stopped, recomposed herself, breathed and walked right in front of their booth.

“Hey!” She said happily. And she truly was. Seeing Willow and Xander so close, so young, after all… even seeing Jesse made a part of her happy. A second chance for her and for him.

“Wh-what do you want?” Willow asked, sinking a bit further into the booth. Great. Definitely not the reaction Buffy wanted.

“Just wanted to chat with you,” Buffy said sincerely and shrugged. “Anything wrong with that?”

“Yes! “No!” “Where’s Cord?” The three answered at the same time, which actually made Buffy laugh a little.

“I come in peace,” Buffy raised both her hands. “I promise.”

“You should, you know,” Willow wasn’t looking at her as she talked. “Do that thing where you hope to die if you are lying.”

Buffy actually laughed. Willow apparently had developed more saltiness on her own here towards the popular.

“Willow!” Xander reprimanded her and turned to Buffy with a smile and a raised eyebrow. “So, what brings Queen Summers to us low-lives?”

Buffy couldn’t quite read this Xander. He seemed a bit bitter like he used to be with Cordelia but she could get the vibes of when he had a thing for her. She hoped that really wasn’t the case. She didn’t have time to deal with that also.

“Just to talk, really.” Buffy said.

“Your friends not giving you interesting conversations?” Jesse asked.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about things they don’t talk to me.” Buffy answered honestly.

“But,” Willow actually looked at her with a completely confused look. “Why us?”

“Just let her talk, Will!” Xander said exasperatedly. Okay, so maybe he had a crush on her?

“What did you want to talk about?” Jesse asked. Buffy noticed that he seemed more interested in what she had to say out of the three.

“Well,” She looked around the club with her hands raised. “Do you any of you guys know what actually happened here? You know, with the gang attack?”

Xander and Willow looked very confused as to why Buffy Summers would want to know about that.

“Nobody really knows what went down that night,” Jesse was the one who decided to talk. “None of us three were here. Which is actually pretty good in retrospect.”

“But, no one is saying nothing?” She asked him as the other two at the booth were still dumbfounded by her question.

“They say a very large gang leader with a tattoo on his head came with his gang here,” Jesse said with a grave voice. “All of the gang members apparently had these messed up faces from doing so many drugs.”

Vampires. “What happened?” Buffy pressed on. What Jesse was describing seemed… familiar.

“Well, if you ask me, and the police will say it didn’t happen,” He lowered his voice and leaned forward. “They killed people. Like, a bunch of them.”

“Why would the police say it didn’t happen?” Buffy asked.

Before Jesse could answer, Xander jumped into the conversation. “Jesse is just a conspiracy theorist who believes the city and the government are hiding things from us because of The Illuminati.”

Jesse elbowed his friend on the stomach. “It’s not because of that! Weird shit happens in this town and people simply ignore it.”

“Yeah,” Buffy looked back at the VIP Room, remembering the talk she had in the morning. “I noticed that.”

“You did?” All three asked her again.

“I’m not such that much of an airhead.” Buffy tried to explain.

“Some people would disagree with that…” Willow commented a bit low.

Buffy turned to her. “I have a question for you, Willow.”

“What?” The redheaded girl seemed tense now. For all the spunkiness she tried to show, she actually was obviously scared of Buffy in some level.

“The librarian, Mr. Giles, what do you know about him?” Buffy asked.

“Mr. Giles? What I know about him?” Willow seemed confused with the question. “He’s the librarian of the school. What more would I know about him?”

“You have a picture of him in your locker.” Jesse half-whispered to her.

She threw a balled-up napkin at him, blushing.

“I mean,” Buffy continued. “Has he worked for a long time as the librarian?”

Now all three were looking at her weirdly.

“What?” Buffy asked.

“Buffy,” Xander spoke. “Mr. Giles has worked on our school since our freshmen year.”

Oh. Oh. So… maybe… he was different here.

“Right,” Buffy laughed. “Of course.”

The three still looked at her confused.

“Well, I, hum,” Buffy started to walk away. “I have to go now. It was really nice talking to you guys. Really. Be safe. And, well, sorry. I apologize for… everything.”

She gave them a sincere smile and walked away, leaving the three bewildered.

“Did she just… apologize to us?” Willow asked.

“I think she did.” Jesse said.

“I can’t breathe.” Xander said almost too dramatically.

Buffy walked around the club aimlessly. So, this version of Giles had been on Sunnydale for longer. And if their talk today was anything to go by, maybe… he wasn’t her Giles. Just like everything else here. Then there was the attack on Bronze. Jesse said something about a guy with a tattoo on his forehead.

An attack on The Bronze… Vampires… One with a tattoo on his head…

She stopped. Cold and dread filled her up. Of course, it sounded familiar.

The Harvest.

If she was guessing right, the guy could just be… Luke! The vessel to the Master. She remembered. She had stopped him. But… that was when she was a Slayer. Back in her old past. Yet…

She sat down near the bar. If The Harvest had happened and no one apparently had stopped it, wouldn’t that mean… Would The Master be free? The Hellmouth would be open? If those were the cases… why wasn’t the town being controlled by The Master? Better yet, why didn’t the apocalypse happened?

Maybe… it didn’t work out, like in the first time? The thought of another Slayer existing in her place had crossed her mind, so maybe she stopped it? Maybe that is why Giles wasn’t a Watcher. If there was a different Slayer, she probably had her own Watcher. Still… this was all still a theory. She needed to know more.

But how?

Then she remembered her other encounter today: Jenny Calendar.

If Jenny, or actually, Janna of the Kalderash, was in Sunnydale, it meant she was here for a reason. A reason… Wait, if it was the same reason she was here in previous past did that mean Angel…

“Buffy! There you are!” Buffy almost jumped out of her seat as Cordelia approached. “We’ve been waiting for you! What happened?”

“Didn’t find Tyler.” Buffy quickly lied.

“Bummer,” Cordelia put a hand on her shoulder. “Jeffrey also isn’t in the VIP Room, I’m afraid.”

Buffy sighed dramatically as she got up. “This is so not my night.”

“Forget about those two!” Cordelia waved her hand. “Come and enjoy with us! Just us girls!”

Buffy couldn’t help the feeling that Cordelia was being genuinely nice to her. “Thanks, Cordy. It’s just that… you know, how I get, right?”

She was playing a game know, assuming stuff from her other self.

“Yeah, I do,” Cordelia sighed but she seemed understanding. “Just don’t mull over too much, okay? I’ll just tell the girls you had an emergency at home.”

Wow. “Thanks, Cordy. I appreciate it.”

“Of course!” Cordelia smiled and hugged before walking back to the VIP Room. “No mulling, remember!”

Buffy slightly shook her head. This world…

She waited for Cordelia to enter the VIP Room before moving. She went to see if Willow, Xander, and Jesse were still at their booth, but they weren’t. Well, she might as well, go home. She thankfully paid close attention to their way to the club, so she believed she would have no problem going home.

She looked inside her purse and sighed. Right. Different world. No stakes, holy water or even a small dagger. She just had to hope she would get home safely and not bump into any…

Her purse fell to the floor.

She… she couldn’t believe her eyes. From across the club, leaving it through a door…

Merrick?

She stood there for a few moments before reaching to take her purse and make a dash for the door. She slightly cursed how many people were in the club and how she didn’t have her Slayer’s abilities for her to get to the door quicker.

She exited the club, breathing hard, looking around. She wasn’t going crazy. Well, not more than she already was by being in this world, but… Merrick? How was that… possible?

She tried to make sense. Maybe if she never became the Slayer, she never had to face Lothos and Merrick never killed himself. Could that mean that maybe he was the Watcher of the probable other Slayer? Well, it would make sense for both of them being here in Sunnydale, especially now that it was part of L.A.

She needed to find him. If Giles or Jenny couldn’t give her any answers, he could. She knew she shouldn’t be thinking about what she was and definitely shouldn’t take that decision. It was the only one she had, though.

So, obviously, she ran towards the nearest cemetery she remembered seeing on the way here.

\--

Like in her Sunnydale, the cemeteries, well, at least this one, was quite big. She stood in front of the entrance, rethinking her decision. She had no way to defend herself for what she would definitely find in there. She also had no idea if Merrick would be there. Then, again, she had no other choice. Gathering all her courage, she walked into the cemetery, feeling a fear she didn’t even remember she used to have.

As she walked, she tried to keep her attention up in any movements. No Slayer powers meant she had to be triply careful. She stopped briefly, taking out a dry and thick branch from one of the trees and held it in her hands. While it felt somewhat alien, she still could feel the muscle memory of having a stake in her hand. She only hoped she wouldn’t need to use it.

She walked further into the cemetery, and as each minute passed, she began to regret her decision. She walked too much already so she thought it would be best to look for another exit than to go back. As she walked, she heard a voice and immediately raised the branch. While her human instincts told her to go the opposite direction, she moved towards the voice. It sounded familiar.

She walked a bit more until she saw someone standing on the other side of another entrance of the cemetery. The person was inside a phone booth. As she walked closer, she recognized that it was Jesse inside it. She lowered the branch and put it behind her. Wait, where were Willow and Xander? She imagined all three would have gone home together. Feeling something wasn’t right, she went to Jesse.

She approached him. He saw her from the booth and she waved. He awkwardly waved and spoke a bit more on the phone. The sound was muffled, so she couldn’t understand what he was saying. After a short while, he finished the call and exited the booth, regarding Buffy strangely.

“Hey.” She greeted.

“Hey,” He greeted back, still not understanding what Buffy was doing there. “Why are you here?”

“Hum,” She looked back at the cemetery. “Having a walk?”

Jesse looked at the cemetery with a raised eyebrow “In there?”

Buffy shrugged. “It’s, hum, peaceful.”

“Right,” Jesse said, not really sure if he believed her. “Hey, did you by any chance spotted Xander and Willow in there?”

“Wait, Willow and Xander are in there?” She asked pointing at the cemetery with the branch. “Why?”

Jesse looked at the branch but chose to ignore it. “Hum, we were taking a shortcut to go back home when this little kid appeared. He said he was lost. So, Xander and Willow stayed with him while I called the cops.”

“A little kid lost in the cemetery?” Buffy couldn’t believe it. “Doesn’t that sound, I don’t know, suspiciously like a horror movie?”

Jesse sighed. “Gotta admit that it does a bit. But he seemed harmless. He was really young and-”

“How young?” Buffy asked as her mind raced. Jesse told her about a vampire that most likely was Luke, which meant The Master was around which meant… “How was he dressed? How did he look like?”

“Dressed?” Jesse asked confused. “Hum, I’m pretty sure he had a red jacket, maybe a hoodie. He had black hair. Really little, probably, I don’t know, eight?”

“Shit!” Buffy ran into the cemetery.

The Anointed One had Xander and Willow.

“Wha-what’s going on?!” Jesse ran after her. “Buffy!”

“The kid is bad news!” Buffy yelled. “Xander and Willow are in mortal danger!”

“Mortal danger?” Jesse asked incredulously. “From a little boy?”

“Where did you leave them?” Buffy kept running but she saw nobody close to where they were.

“They,” Jesse lifted a finger but slowly lowered it. “They were right next to that angel statue, but…”

“Come on!” Buffy said as she began to run. “We need to find them!”

“Buffy!” Jesse yelled as he ran after her again. “Why would they be in danger? What the hell is happening?”

“We save them first and I explain it later!” Buffy said.

The two ran some more but stopped to catch their breath. Buffy looked in every direction frantically, hoping to spot them. She thought about that Mausoleum, the one that led to that maze under the town which would lead to The Master’s lair but… this wasn’t the same cemetery and she couldn’t be sure he would take them there and-

“Ah!” A scream pierced the silence and Buffy immediately recognized it. Xander.

“Let’s go!” She told Jesse, sprinting towards the direction of the scream.

“Buffy, are you insane?” Jesse asked, not following her. “What are we supposed to do? We should wait for the cops!”

She said nothing, she only ran. She needed to save them. Save Willow. Save Xander. She couldn’t lose them. Not now. Not so early. Not ever. She would die trying, but she would save them. She kept running and as she got closer, she heard sounds she recognized… sounds of fighting.

Willow and Xander, with the age and lack of knowledge, they would never fight back-

She saw the two, and they weren’t fighting. Both were on the ground, hugging and leaning against a gravestone, watching a young girl fighting about five vampires. The Anointed One was nowhere she could see. She took a few seconds, but pried her eyes away from the fight and approached the two.

“Are you guys alright?” She asked. Both screamed as she approached them. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s just me.”

“What are you doing here?” Willow asked, voice trembling.

“Long story,” Buffy said. She couldn’t help and keep glancing at the girl fighting. She was dealing with the vampires very well. “Did he or those five hurt you?”

“They tried to bite us!” Xander screeched and showed a faint mark of fangs on his neck. “That brat brought us here for those lunatics to attack us.”

“Oh my gosh!” It was Jesse. He kneeled next to Buffy. “What the hell happened?”

“You should all talk about this at a later moment,” A male voice said. Buffy hadn’t noticed somewhere else was there. The man was young, probably in his mid-20s at the most. He dressed very formally, making Buffy immediately think of Giles and Merrick. He was Polynesian and had a soothing voice. He glanced at the girl fighting. “Go now. She will take care of it.”

“Who are you?” Jesse asked and looked at the girl fighting. “Who is she? What the fuck is she beating up?!”

“He’s right!” Buffy grabbed Willow who didn’t protest. “We have to leave right now! Jesse, take Xander and we have to get out of here!”

Jesse obeyed and the four moved away. Buffy couldn’t help to stop and look at the girl. She saw her more clearly. She was young. Too young. Fourteen, she guessed. Filipina, with long light brown hair and she, moved incredibly. With the guy in a suit watching her, she had no doubt.

“Buffy?” Willow asked meekly.

“Right,” She turned around and moved. “Let’s go!”

The four moved as quickly as they could away from the fight. Buffy was glad no other vampires appeared. Xander mentioned going a certain direction where they would find another exit so they moved towards that direction. Soon enough, the four were out. All four sighed in relief.

Willow let go of Buffy and went to hug Xander and Jesse, crying. The three hugged. Buffy felt a pain in her heart. She wanted to hug them too. The important thing though was that they were all safe.

Saved by a, well, clearly a Slayer and her Watcher. Neither whom she had ever seen. The Watcher definitely wasn’t Merrick, so that meant another thing for her list of things to figure it out. But, now, she finally had one answer: This Sunnydale was just like the other one. Vampires, what she believed in her gut to be the Anointed One, which meant The Master, and more importantly, a Slayer.

“Buffy!” Jesse came up to her. “What the hell is happening?”

“What were those things?” Willow asked as she still held on to Xander.

“Why did one of them bit me?” Xander asked still brushing his neck. At least he wasn’t bleeding. That Slayer must have saved him at the right time.

“I know you have a lot of questions,” Buffy said and looked around the empty street. “But we need to get as far as we can from here and find a safe place.”

“Buffy,” Jesse was right next to her. “You need to tell us what is going on!”

“Why would that boy take us to those lunatics?” She heard Willow ask Xander.

“Okay,” Buffy sighed. “They are vampires.”

“V-va-vampires?” Xander couldn’t believe what he was saying.

“Those things…” Jesse glanced at the cemetery. “They were…”

“Vampires. The real deal. Blood-sucking, undead, killing machines, vampires.” Buffy told them honestly. Things were different from the first time the others had encountered vampires and she knew they deserved to know the truth.

“What about the boy?” Willow asked, clearly afraid of the answer. “Was he…?”

“A vampire too,” Buffy answered. “And if I am sure of who he is, he is much worse news than the ones he made attack you.”

“But, but-” Willow couldn’t believe it.

“I know,” Buffy told her. “He is a little boy. That makes him more dangerous, trust me.”

“How do you know all this?” Xander asked.

“As I said, long story and we need to get away from here!” Buffy told them. “Look, if the kid is the Anointed One than that can only mean more trouble coming and we can’t stay here and wait for-”

“More vampires to appear?” Another voice echoed from the darkened streets.

Jesse took several steps back, getting close to Willow and Xander. Buffy, on the other hand, froze. The voice… that voice…

She slowly turned around. From the shadows, a man emerged. He was pale, dressed all in black. Spiky hair. Chilling. And of course, the face of an angel.

“A-Angel?” Buffy couldn’t believe it.

The man looked at Buffy quizzically. “Angel? Well, nobody really calls me that. I don’t know you that well to give me pet names.”

_Nobody calls him like that?_ She thought.

“I can’t believe your luck,” He said looking at the four teens. “Escaping from The Master’s vampires only to bump into me. I knew Sunnydale was going to be a real ride.”

“You are not Angel?” Buffy asked, trying her best not make her voice tremble. It was him. How come he would say he wasn’t Angel… oh… oh no!

“My name is Angelus,” He said with that smile. That smile that tortured Buffy back on her past junior year. “I am curious as to why you would call me that.”

“No… no, no, no,” Buffy slowly backed away, shaking her head. “No! You can’t be him!”

“So you do know who I am?” Angelus put a finger on his chin and looked Buffy up and down. “And how would you know that and still call me Angel? Who are you?”

“You,” Buffy was holding back tears. “You don’t know… who I am?”

“Should I?” Angelus asked with a certain disdain.

Buffy didn’t know what to do. What to think. Angelus was standing right in front of her. But… how? With Jenny in town, she had imagined she was keeping an eye on Angel, just like…

“Buffy!” Xander yelled. “Who is this guy?”

“Buffy,” Angelus looked at her more, seemingly interested. “What a funny little name.”

“Run,” She almost couldn’t say. She turned her head to the three. “Run!”

“Oh, please do!” Angelus laughed. “Makes it more fun, you know? Pumping blood tastes so more delicious. And four! One for each of my loves.”

One of each of his loves… “Darla.” Buffy said.

Angelus tilted his head. “You know her too. You know of the four of us then, I assume.”

Four? That could only mean… The Whirlwind. Darla… Drusilla… And… Angelus and Spike… All soulless vampires. The most dangerous group of them to have ever existed.

“This is not…” Buffy began talking to herself. “You were meant to be cursed… You…”

“How do you know that?” Angelus’ voice turned icily serious. “Who are you?”

Buffy looked into his eyes. She remembered the feeling. That feeling that ripped her heart apart so many years ago. Looking at Angel and seeing the other one.

“Buffy!” Jesse screamed as he grabbed one of her arms while Willow grabbed the other with Xander standing right behind her. “We need to run!”

“You are mine now, Buffy,” Angelus said licking his lips. “I want to know everything that is to know about you.”

Buffy didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t fight him. She didn’t know if the Slayer would come and help them, even if they screamed. She doubted she would reach them in time. She felt useless. She needed to save Willow, Xander, and Jesse. However… she didn’t know what to do.

Jesse, Willow, and even Xander started to pull her away, yelling for them to go. Angelus seemed to be having a blast as he slowly walked towards them. She knew. She knew exactly what would happen if Angelus captured them. What Darla would do. God, what Drusilla and… Spike would do. Was this… it?

“Ah!”

They all yelled as a volley of fiery arrows fell between the four and the vampire. Screeching from both sides of the street, two large vans stopped behind Angelus. From inside one, more fiery arrows continued coming and from the other what could only be described as holy water and what smelled like garlic gas bombs came. Angelus vamped out and moved away from the vans.

“Come inside now!” Running from inside a van came Giles.

“Go, now!” Right behind was Jenny with a giant crucifix pointed at Angelus.

Giles dragged Buffy inside one of the vans with Willow, Jesse and Xander following right after. Once they were inside, Giles yelled for the driver to go and the rushed away from the vampire.

Angelus, now with his human face, looked at arsenal thrown at him and smirked, turning his head towards the two vans running away. Vampire hunters, of course, and very well prepared ones, he had to admit. No matter. Now that he was in Sunnydale, he would definitely have a lot of interesting things to do. Especially one.

“Buffy.” He said as he walked back into the shadows.

\--

During the entire ride, Buffy was basically in shock. She could hear the voices talking around her, but her mind couldn’t process. All she could see was Angel… no… Angelus’ face. How… what… why…

“We are here.” A voice from the driver’s seat announced as all the doors from the van opened.

“Ms. Summers.” Buffy blinked a few times. Giles was right in front of her. “Buffy?”

“Giles…” She couldn’t help herself and launched herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. Giles didn’t hug him back, he simply patted her on her back.

“We need to get inside now.” He told her.

She looked at the van and they were the only two there. “Wait… Willow and Xander and Jesse…”

“They are all fine,” Giles reassured her. “They are inside with the others, where we need to go. Now.”

Giles took her hand and helped her out of the van. He closed the door and guided her to what Buffy recognized as a different version of Giles old house. Well, of course, he would have a different version too. She briefly glanced at the other van parked in front of his house. It was also empty. She let him guide her inside.

“We are safe here now,” He said closing the door. “You need to be checked.”

Giles gently pushed Buffy inside the house, which Buffy barely recognized into a larger living room her Watcher once had. And the living room was packed. She quickly found Willow and Jesse standing in a corner with Xander as Jenny checked his neck. Then, she saw the rest of the people in the living room. She simply couldn’t believe it.

Amy Madison, Jonathan Levinson, Larry Blaisdell, Michael Czjak, Devon MacLeish, Percy West and Sheila Martini were all there, dressed in dark clothes, almost like a type of special ops, arranging weapons and other things.

“Is she ok?” Buffy turned to the female voice who asked Giles. She didn’t recognize her.

“She seems to be fine, Nancy,” Giles reassured the girl who nodded. “A bit shocked, though.”

“Alright then,” She smiled at Buffy briefly. “Oz and the others already told him you are here.”

Wait, Oz? As in… Oz. He was here too? What was going on?

From a corridor, Daniel “Oz” Osbourne emerged followed by three boys. It took Buffy a second before her breath caught in her throat.

Pike?

Standing right behind Oz was Oliver Pike, the same one who helped her back in her first times as Slayer. More surprisingly was that accompanying him were Benny Jacks, Pike’s old best friend and none other than Billy “Ford” Fordham.

Buffy needed to know what was happening. Right now.

“What,” Buffy tried to poise herself. “What is this?”

“Welcome to the War Room, Summers,” Ford told her as he approached her with a smile. “Never thought I would see you here.”

Buffy had no response.

“They were attacked by a vampire,” Giles explained as he moved into the living room. “Together with those three.”

“He’s fine,” Jenny told Giles. “The skin didn’t even break.”

“And he didn’t drink blood, I assume.” Giles said.

“Drink blood?” Xander’s face displayed complete disgust. “Why in the world would I drink blood? I was bitten by a grown-ass dude!”

“He is just making sure you weren’t sired, Xander.” Amy told him.

“Amy?” Willow asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving you guys,” She offered a smile. “Well, all of us saved you guys of course.”

“What is this exactly?” Jesse asked. “You just told us that you saved us from a vampire.”

“That is correct.” Giles reassured him.

“So, you were right,” Xander said looking at Buffy. “You knew they were vampires.”

All eyes in the room turned to Buffy, who sighed. Great, now she was in the spotlight.

“How the fuck does Queen of Sunnydale High knows jackshit about vampires?” Pike asked. Buffy looked at him somewhat surprised at his clearly hostile tone.

“That is quite an interesting question that I would like to hear the answer to.” Giles said. He crossed his arms and walked around the living room, clearly studying her.

“Oh-oh,” Another male voice came from the corridor. “Now you sparked his interest.”

Buffy couldn’t help her jaw dropping. Leaning against the wall was Ethan Rayne. Ethan fucking Rayne!

“What are you doing here?” Buffy asked automatically.

Ethan jerked his head back in surprise. “I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

Buffy fidgeted a bit, cursing herself for that slip of control.

“It seems that Ms. Summers knows quite a lot.” Giles said as he stood next to Ethan. Personal-space-invading next to Ethan. Buffy frowned.

“Guess you have some explaining to do, princess.” Benny said. He also seemed somewhat disdainful of her.

“She does,” Jenny said raising her voice. “But it is late and you know the rules. You all go home. Now.”

Some of them groaned but obliged as they started getting up and gather some things.

“As for your three,” Giles pointed to Xander, Jesse, and Willow. “Not a word from tonight.”

“But!” All three started to protest before Giles shushed them.

“I promise I will explain to you what happened, but not tonight, and you will not talk about this to anyone,” He gave him a very serious look. “Is that understood?”

“Yes.” The three said.

“Jenny will take you home,” He told them and turned to Pike. “You take the others.”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Pike got up and gave Giles a mock salute.

“And no patrolling.” Ethan told him what Buffy could only describe as father-figure's voice. What the…

“I promise I will keep him at home, don’t worry.” Benny told Ethan.

“I bet he will.” Larry whispered to Michael as the two laughed.

Pike playfully hit Larry’s arms as all the teens started leaving the house with Miss Calendar.

“What about you, Buffy?” Xander asked.

“I am staying.” She said seriously looking into Giles’ eyes.

“Why?” Pike demanded.

Buffy gave him a look of confusion mixed with disgust. What was his problem?

“She’s right,” Giles told Pike and the others. “We have a lot to discuss and I’ll take her home safely.

Pike was clearly not happy with the idea but left the house anyway.

Now, it was only Buffy and Giles. Plus Ethan, who hadn’t moved from his spot.

She eyed him carefully. Why would Giles let him here? Why were all of those students in his house?

“Ethan,” Giles turned to him, speaking now in a gentler voice. “Some tea, please?”

“Of course, Rupert.” Ethan gave him a smile and left to Buffy assumed was the kitchen.

“So, Ms. Summers,” Giles gestured for her to sit in one of the sofas as he sat in a chair right in front of her. “Where do you want to start?”

Buffy sighed. Truth to be told, she simply had no idea where to start.

“You knew I was a Watcher,” Giles said. “How did you know that? Only Ethan knows that.”

“Why only him?” Buffy asked.

“Ethan has been in my life for a long time, Ms. Summers.” Giles explained simply.

“Yeah, I know…” Still didn’t make sense.

“You know?” Giles tilted his head. “How exactly do you know?”

Buffy closed her eyes, trying to focus and decide where to start.

“How do you know so much?” Giles kept asking.

“And don’t try to lie to him,” Ethan suddenly came back to the room with a tray of teacups. “He’s very good at spotting them.”

Buffy had to tear her eyes away from Ethan as he stood right next to Giles. “There’s… a lot, and I do mean a lot, to tell you.”

“Start from the beginning then.” Giles said.

Buffy inhaled. This was Giles. Sure, it was a Giles from another reality who let Ethan Rayne into his house and apparently had a teen army working with him, but still, it was Giles.

“I’m not… Buffy,” From the confused looks she received, she continued. “I’m not the Buffy you know. The Buffy from this… world or dimension or timeline, I don’t know the exact nomenclature… I’m not her.”

“Then who are you?” Ethan asked.

“I’m Buffy Summers,” She said. “From another one of those, I just mentioned.”

“You are telling us you are an alternate version of Buffy Summers from another universe?” Giles asked patiently.

“I guess that would be an explanation.” Buffy said.

“Would there be another one?” Giles spoke quite calmly.

“It’s hard, even for me to explain, really.” Buffy sighed.

“Just keep trying.” Ethan said.

Buffy sighed. Did he need to be here for this? “I didn’t change places with the Buffy from here.”

“Then, how can you be a different Buffy?” Giles asked.

“I’m from the future,” Buffy said simply. Giles and Ethan exchanged unreadable looks. “One future, that this here, this world, the way things are, were not my past.”

“If you are from the future,” Ethan looked at her. “How come you have the same body as the Buffy from this time as you say?”

“I didn’t travel from the future,” Buffy tried to explain. “I mean, not my physical self, but my mind.”

“Your mind?” Giles was a bit confused.

“A spell was performed to send my conscious through time so I could, well, basically take over my younger body.” Buffy said.

“But that wasn’t what exactly happened.” Ethan guessed.

She hated him for being right. “No. It did not, at all.”

“Your future mind took over the body of a different Buffy Summers,” Giles was putting the information together. “You  are not inside the body of your actual younger self.”

“No,” Buffy lowered her head. “The spell… something might have happened and… my mind was just thrown through time and space and I… got here.”

“How different is this from the past you lived?” Giles asked.

“How long in the future do you come from?” Ethan asked at the same time.

“Very, very different, trust me,” Buffy said to Giles and then turned to Ethan. “A long, long time.”

“How long exactly?” Ethan asked.

Buffy sighed. “I’m… not so sure.”

“What do you mean?” Giles asked.

“The spell also did something with my memories,” Buffy said. “I know things that should have happened around this time, years before and after I was this age, but the further I try to remember, the less I can.”

“A time-traveling spell gone wrong in such way…” Ethan regarded Buffy and laughed. He laughed.

“You think this is funny?” Buffy actually got up, angry.

“No,” Ethan raised his hands. “What I am saying is that the spell sent you not only into a distant past, I am assuming, but the wrong distant past.”

Buffy kept looking at him but nodded.

“Is that why you knew I was a Watcher?” Giles asked.

“Well, in my past, you were still a Watcher.” Buffy said sitting down.

Giles sighed with a smile. “Can’t really see myself continuing being a Watcher, I must tell you.”

“Well,” Buffy smiled saddened. “You were. You were my Watcher. For many, many years.”

Giles’ eyes shifted and now he looked at Buffy completely differently. “I was… your Watcher?”

“Yes.” She answered simply.

“You were a Slayer.” Giles said in disbelief.

“I was the Slayer,” Buffy bragged a bit. “For a while, then a lot of things changed.”

“The Slayer?” Ethan asked. “As in singular.”

Buffy nodded.

“Well, that hasn’t happened for a while now, has it?” He asked Giles.

“What do you mean?” Buffy asked looking at both of them.

“Well,” Giles sighed. “For some years now, there has been three Slayers active at a time.”

Buffy blinked several times. Trying to process the information. In this world, there were three… **three** Slayers and… she wasn’t one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... yeah, three Slayers and Buffy is not one of them. One sort of cameoed in this chapter and while she's not referred to by name, she's India Cohen, the Slayer most extra media of BtVS says was the Slayer right before Buffy. The other two Slayers will be appearing in future chapters. Also, while it may not be so clear in this chapter, I already put up in the Relationship Tags that, indeed, Giles and Ethan are together in this reality as well as Pike and Benny. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I really hope you stick around for the story. I really have some interesting ideas for it and playing with this characters in a whole new playground will definitely be fun. Hopefully, see you soon.


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